


With Open Arms

by serendipitousDescent



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 22:32:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10626492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipitousDescent/pseuds/serendipitousDescent
Summary: When Kakashi sees Naruto, he doesn't just see his former sensei.He sees the years of history between them, the times they've been apart and the times they've been together. He sees the comfort Naruto has offered him time and time again, as well as the knowledge that said comfort goes both ways. He sees keychains and his father's tanto and breakdowns painted in front of red sunsets.Most of all, when Kakashi sees Naruto, he sees the man he's in love with.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cunning_wreck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cunning_wreck/gifts).



> Happy (now belated, oops) Birthday to my roommate! You're the best and I know you're going to make it through the rest of your finals. Also, you know, thanks for reading through the hard copy and pointing out my spelling mistakes <3

“Team Seven: Hatake, Nohara, Uchiha,” Iruka-sensei says with crisp words. “Your jounin sensei is-” 

The blond man standing behind him pushes himself off the back wall and beams at the class. “Uzumaki Naruto! C’mon, follow me up to the roof.” 

“Naruto-senpai-”

“Don’t worry, Iruka-kun.” His beaming smile is turned towards their Academy instructor and Iruka-sensei looks like he’s seconds away from strangling the jounin. “I got this covered. Besides, we’re friends, aren’t we? That means you should trust me with these things!” 

Kakashi stares blankly as Uzumaki Naruto leaves the room without another word. The only way to describe this feeling is that it’s similar to walking straight through one of Suna’s sandstorms. One glance towards Rina and Obito confirms that he isn’t alone in this but the classroom door is still open, taunting them. 

Following Naruto up to the roof will certainly change more things than they ever thought possible. Those types of people, the ones who shine that bright and don’t stop for anything, always change things.

“Good luck, you guys,” Iruka urges them. “Now, Team Eight.”

* * *

“You’re an idiot,” Kakashi says, blandly. 

Naruto blearily opens his eyes, one black and the other the brightest blue Kakashi has ever seen. His exhaustion must be at its peak because he doesn’t immediately counter the statement but he doesn’t need to. All Kakashi needs is that sheepish turn of his lips to know exactly what’s going through that thick head of his. 

“Too bad our captain was so useless.” There is no inflection to his words but Naruto pulls back regardless. “If his ego didn’t keep getting in the way, we might have finished the mission. Instead, he decided to needlessly use his special technique past its two hour limit and then passed out unexpectedly.” 

“Kakashi-kun,” Naruto starts.

The door opens before Kakashi can get any further, and Rin’s eyebrows are pulled up even as she holds back a smile. “Was it really that bad, Kakashi? It’s a good thing you had such a good medic then.” 

“Ah, you never let me have my fun, Rin.” 

“Because your fun usually ends with Naruto-sensei freaking out until Hokage-sama sets him straight again,” she says, bumping into his shoulder as she walks past. Her hands light up with green chakra and her shoulders tense with the effort but none of it shows on her face. “Do I need to remind you about that time you convinced him all of the training grounds were flooded from a light afternoon rain?” 

“I had ulterior motives,” Kakashi protests mildly. 

Rin laughs and the fond look she shares with Naruto fills Kakashi with warmth. “Should you really be using that excuse, Kakashi-kun? Anyways, it looks like everything’s fine, so I’m going to go calm Obito down before he wears a hole in the floor with all his pacing.” 

The image that brings makes him snort and Rin gives him a conspiratorial grin before leaving to comfort the last part of their old genin team. Gone and left him and Naruto to their own devices and knowing her, that’s entirely by design. 

Naruto breaks the following silence with a pained grunt, only now drawing Kakashi’s attention to how he’s attempting to push himself up. Kakashi wastes no time in putting that to an end by grabbing hold of his hand, their fingers instinctively intertwining together. 

“Sorry, you were right. I should have-” 

“Shut up,” Kakashi says lightly, squeezing his hand. “It’s enough that you know I’m right for now. I’m going to enjoy not having to do the dishes for the next month though.”

* * *

“So,” Uzumaki Naruto starts, his grin wide enough to split his face into two, “how about we do some introductions? Likes, dislikes, that sort of thing?”

Kakashi glances to his left, unsurprised at the disbelieving expressions he sees. 

It’s the first time he’s really paid much attention to either of them. He doesn’t have the first idea why the Hokage thought they would work well together. Obito can match him blow for blow when it comes to taijutsu but his chakra control is abysmal, dropping the rest of his marks below the class average. On the other hand, Rin has the best chakra control in the class but always falls short when it comes to actually fighting. 

Kakashi needs to find out how to bring out their strengths if all of them are going to survive training under Naruto. That grin reminds him a bit too much of Gai’s father and that is a terrifying thought. The only thing more ridiculous than Gai’s training methods is his father’s training methods, and Kakashi would rather eat a kunai than go through that again. 

That being said, at least they have the sense not to give themselves up for slaughter right away. 

“No volunteers?” Naruto asks, dejected. 

Obito is quick to shake his head, as Kakashi and Rin sit tight.

Naruto sighs lightly, not so much as bothering to hide his pout. “Fine, fine, I’ll go first then. My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen but I like other people paying for my ramen even more, so keep that in mind. I dislike the three minutes it takes for instant ramen to cook. My dream for the future is to become a sensei that all of you can look up to!” 

“It’ll take a lot more than a couple lessons for that to ever-” 

“Obito-kun, I don’t think you should be insulting our new sensei already,” Rin says under her breath. 

Naruto beams. “I’m so glad that you volunteered to go next, Obito-kun!” 

A series of emotions flicker across Obito’s face before he settles on a scowl, hunching his shoulders. 

This isn’t that unusual for Obito though. Kakashi lets out a slow breath and just listens. All of this is so pointless, even if he’s going along with all of it. As soon as he graduates to chūnin, he’ll move onto a different team while Rin and Obito go their separate ways. Not to mention that if Naruto were really any good at being a jounin, he would know more about them in a matter of minutes than they do themselves. 

None of Obito’s tenseness fades as he goes through his likes and dislikes, ending with that stereotypical dream for the future. Becoming the Hokage is the goal of almost every Academy student Kakashi has ever talked to and it still makes Rin sigh fondly. 

“Kakashi-kun, you’re up next. 

Kakashi snaps back to attention, focusing directly on Naruto. “My name is Hatake Kakashi. I like training and I dislike idiots. My dream for the future is no one’s business but my own.” 

“Please, it would-”

“No.” 

“Alright then.” Naruto sighs and tries for another smile, “It’s your turn, Rin.” 

“Wait a moment, idiots?” Obito interrupts, his back straightening as he glowers at Kakashi. “Did you just call me an idiot, Bakashi!” 

“Shouldn’t the length of time it took you to realize that tell you enough?” Kakashi answers sharply. 

Later, Naruto will tell them that they’ve officially broken some sort of record for how long it takes a genin team to be dragged in front of the Hokage. He won’t mention the amount of time the other jounin sensei spend laughing at the story.

* * *

They sit in silence for a good, long while, their thighs pressed together as they sit side by side. Their drinks sit on the table, untouched but for a couple sips. Not that their silence is reflective of the rest of the bar as Kakashi looks down at the almost-new menu just in time for a senbon needle to fly over his head, embedding itself into the wall. 

Judging by the way Naruto keeps looking back towards the door, he almost certainly expects the others to show up at any moment. As if Obito doesn’t have to be dragged anywhere there might be other shinobi these days. It won’t occur to him that Kakashi asked them to wait a while before showing up, at least not for a while, until Kakashi does what he came here to do. 

There is only so much time left before the others do show up. Getting Obito to agree to any of this was already difficult enough. Too many things happened while he wasn’t around and helping Rin out with her genin team only helps smooth some things over. His relationship with Naruto certainly isn’t one of them. 

“Alright,” Naruto says loudly, even as he squeezes Kakashi’s knee. “You’re going to tell me what’s wrong on the count of three. One… two… three!”

Kakashi stares. 

“C’mon, it won’t work if you don’t actually say anything. One… two… three! Kakashi, please, you have to-” 

“I want you to move in with me.” 

A beat of silence passes as Naruto’s jaw goes slack. 

Kakashi is in the middle of coming up with an apology when Naruto finally starts to grin, swooping upwards to smack their lips together. It’s awkward and clumsy with Kakashi’s face-mask in the way but he turns in towards it, knows that Naruto can feel his smile beneath it. 

Turning down any of Naruto’s affection isn’t even an option for him. There are a thousand and one things he would do for that small smile Naruto gives him when they part. It puts him on top of the world and insists that he’s invincible in the face of everything else. That’s why he isn’t surprised to find himself gripping at the sleeve of Naruto’s shirt, feeling as if a weight has finally been lifted off his shoulders. In a way, it has. 

“I will,” Naruto agrees with a laugh. “Of course I will. Even if it means moving in with all of your stinky dogs as well.” 

“They’d take offense if they heard you say that,” Kakashi manages, his tone artificially light. 

“It would be just like every other time they’ve heard it, I’m sure.” Naruto hooks his foot around Kakashi’s ankle, beaming like Kakashi went and asked him to marry him. “But I have to know, why now? We could have moved in together years ago, so why did you just ask me now?”

Kakashi can’t stop his derisive snort, only encouraged when Naruto’s smile fades into a pout. “Nothing’s changed. Actually, none of this would have been necessary if you had actually looked at what I got you for your thirty-eighth birthday.” 

“My thirty-eighth birthday? But that was-” 

Naruto cuts himself off and quickly goes rummaging through his kunai pouch for the small, durable keychain, the colour quickly draining from his cheeks. It takes a few moments for him to thumb through the keys once he pulls it out but he eventually finds the odd key out, its edges still sharp. 

The only key that had been added to the keychain since Kakashi gave it to him was the key to Naruto’s own apartment on the other side of the village. Everything else about the keychain had been perfect, Naruto had claimed on several occasions, right down to the toad charm Kakashi spent three weeks searching for. 

“We could have been living together for two years,” Naruto says faintly. 

Kakashi hums in agreement.

“All this time and I thought I just needed to wait for you to be ready when you’ve actually been waiting for me. How did I miss this? Why - why did they even let me graduate from the Academy?” 

“I’ve been wondering that since you were assigned as my sensei,” Kakashi replies. 

“Hey, I wasn’t being serious! They had to let the top of the class graduate!” 

“You were the top of your class? Hmm, that isn’t what the Hokage claims.”

* * *

“That makes you Konoha’s Demonic Kitsune then.” 

Demonic… Kitsune? 

Naruto smiles, about as far from the bright expression it normally is as it could possibly get. “I guess people do call me that sometimes, just like they call you the Demon of Kiri, Momochi Zabuza. Heh, it’s quite the coincidence that we’re only just meeting now, isn’t it?” 

Kakashi stares, his jaw slack and his grip on his kunai a bit too loose. The Demonic Kitsune of Konoha is a name he’s heard before, if only in passing. It shouldn’t be applied to their goofball sensei with his tendency to send them on wild goose chases across the village. 

But the pieces are already falling into place. There isn’t a picture of the Demonic Kitsune in the bingo book but there is a brief description of a short, blond man with one blue eye and one black, of someone with a Sharingan who isn’t from the Uchiha clan. Kakashi has never seen Naruto use it before, has never really thought about why Naruto has two differently coloured eyes. He’s almost entirely certain it’s activated right now, a bright red pinwheel where there used to be black. 

“What the hell?” Obito breathes out.

Momochi Zabuza’s eyes are wide and wild, the wrappings over his mouth doing nothing to hide his grin. “I can’t say I believe in coincidence, Uzumaki. You better not take that as an excuse to hold back on me.” 

“I wouldn’t even consider it,” Naruto says, loud and boisterous. “Even my genin team could tell you that I don’t hold back on anyone.” 

Obito tenses to Kakashi’s left. “That’s not even true, that-” 

“Obito, do you really want to argue with Naruto-sensei right now?” 

Rin is right about that much, Kakashi faintly thinks to himself. His breath is stuck in back of his throat as he watches Naruto charge towards Zabuza, and his hand tightens around his kunai once more. Red chakra flickers around Naruto, like an ever-moving gust of wind, and regardless of how easily they exchange blows, this is a fight between demons. Even the slightest distraction will resulting in this ending badly for them but there is power there. More power than Kakashi ever thought Naruto possessed.

* * *

The view from the Hokage’s office is certainly the best in the village. Almost every district of the village can be seen from the windows, the building just slightly above all the others. Personally, Kakashi prefers the view from Naruto’s apartment, even if no one can see past the thick trees or hear anything other than the marketplace below. It’s truthfully just a matter of personal preference. 

“Baa-chan, you in here?” 

Kakashi breathes in, bracing himself. “Sorry but Hokage-sama already went home for the day.” 

“She went-” The chair swings around with nearly enough force to send Kakashi falling to the ground. He doesn’t but instead is faced with the messy blond hair and wild mismatched eyes that have come to mean so much to him. “Kakashi, please tell me that Moegi didn’t order you to cover for her.” 

“Moegi-sama didn’t order me to cover for her,” he repeats back. 

Naruto’s face darkens. “Kakashi-” 

“No one likes to see you like this, Naruto.” 

“Then everyone should just stop trying to make me the Hokage!” 

The shout echoes through the office. Kakashi feels himself rear backwards despite himself, suddenly aware of far more than the expression on Naruto’s face. 

Not a moment is given for Kakashi to take in the heavy breathing or the sweat dripping from his cheeks because Naruto drops down, his forehead resting against the high back of the Hokage’s chair. Like this, there is an insurmountable distance between them. Kakashi could just reach out but something stop him, his hands curling into fists in his lap. He can count the number of times he’s seen Naruto like this on one hand, and it hurts to see it happening once more. 

Long moments pass before Naruto’s chest stops heaving, before Kakashi feels comfortable enough to brush his fingers against Naruto’s arm. Then the distance dissipates. It dissipates as Naruto curls down around him, grasping at his shoulders for support, and by the time Kakashi returns the gesture, Naruto is halfway in his lap. 

“You know, I never thought it was fair that you ended up taller than me,” Naruto quietly says. 

“Just one of the many things we can agree to disagree on.” 

“Shikamaru will become Hokage once Moegi retires.” Naruto grabs hold of Kakashi’s shirt, refusing to look up as Kakashi falls into silence. “That’s why I came here to talk to baa-chan. He still wants me to come along as an aid on diplomatic meetings and all that because apparently I’m good at bringing people over to our side.” 

“You are,” Kakashi agrees, hesitant. “But-” 

“This isn’t weakness, Kakashi.” 

His breath catches in the back of his throat because Naruto is finally looking right at him. That isn’t the expression of someone who has given up on themselves. That isn’t what Naruto looks like when he starts having difficulties with someone and Kakashi should know what that looks like, given the amount of times he’s been the cause of either of those expressions. 

There are deep lines between his eyebrows but his face is set, likely just as stubborn as the day Naruto was born. Despite that, all Kakashi can see is the fierce emotion in those eyes, bright and breathtaking. His heartbeat quickens at the sight, just as it always does. Naruto softens after a moment, the lines in his face softening away into nothing. 

“As if I could ever think of my old sensei as weak,” Kakashi says, his voice purposely light. 

Naruto rolls his eyes and leans back, his hands dropping from Kakashi’s chest. “Do you know how often you told me I was weak when you were a genin? Ino would always laugh and laugh at me when we’d go for drinks and complain about our teams.” 

“At least you have nothing to complain about now?” 

“She tries to hit me if I even try,” Naruto confirms, his pout almost audible. “But really, Shikamaru will be a lot better at being Hokage than I ever would be. He’ll make the right decisions and won’t let himself be clouded by old grudges.” 

“Shikamaru will hate being the Hokage,” he points out dryly. 

“Heh, who knows about that? He also said he’d hate being a sensei but Asuma and the others turned out to be pretty amazing. I just - I’m fine like this, you know? I have you and everyone else, and maybe things aren’t entirely perfect but being in charge of the village won’t change that.”

* * *

A soft thunk echoes through the training ground just as Kakashi drops to his knees and stares at the kunai embedded in the tree trunk. His fingers dig into the damp ground, rain rolling down his cheeks. Dirt gathers underneath his fingernails but the feeling isn’t any more satisfying than throwing kunai and shuriken had been. 

Obito left.

Obito left Rin. 

Obito left him. 

He left, even after everything they went through together, after getting through the Chūnin Exam and Suna’s invasion, after surviving the run-in with Udon, after dealing with everything that happened in Wave. 

He left without even a goodbye and maybe that’s the part that hurts the most, right after the way Kakashi just sat back and let it happen. Kakashi reaches for another kunai, not entirely surprised when he finds his kunai pouch empty, and then pushes himself back up to his feet. Maybe the world will feel a bit more stable beneath his feet if he can feel his fist connect with something, anything. 

“Kakashi,” Naruto calls from a distance, “that’s enough.” 

Kakashi stops, startled into compliance. He hadn’t even sensed Naruto approaching. It says more about him right now than it does Naruto because Naruto’s chakra rivals the brightness of the sun even now. 

“Kakashi.” The distance between them closes rapidly until Naruto stands beside him. His hand drops down onto Kakashi’s shoulder and his eyes are far softer than they have any right to be. “You need to stop.” 

“No,” he says but it sounds hollow even to his own ears. 

Naruto smiles but the corners of his mouth are a bit too pinched and the expression fades with a sigh. “Just for tonight because tonight you and Rin are coming over to my apartment. I have fresh eggplant and strawberries in the fridge and the spare bedroom is always free.” 

Kakashi jerks backwards, the hand slipping from his shoulder. 

“No one said you have to be alone, Kakashi.” 

“But I abandoned-” 

“You’re here right now, aren’t you? That doesn’t look like abandonment to me,” Naruto points out with a laugh, pointedly looking around the half-destroyed clearing. “No one said that Obito can’t be brought back to the village, and I know you remember what I say about people who abandon their friends.” 

“Moegi-sama did, actually,” Kakashi says but the ground has finally stopped moving underneath his feet and he feels a bit more like himself. 

Naruto snorts. “Baa-chan left the village but then started an underground fighting school in Tea Country and still came back to Konoha, so I don’t think her opinion counts too much right now. Actually, unless she’s assigning missions or giving someone advice on what brand of sake to buy, her opinion doesn’t ever count as much.”

* * *

“They found Obito.” 

Kakashi freezes, chopsticks still resting between his lips.

“Kakashi,” Naruto repeats but this time it’s obvious that he isn’t just frazzled from getting a message this early in the morning. “Obito’s coming back to the village.”

“I-” 

The rest of his sentence dies in the back of his throat and all of a sudden, Kakashi is thirteen all over again, doing nothing but throw himself at his training in the vague hope that he could force Obito to come back to the village. He’s thirteen and shaking in some training ground in those long hours before Naruto found him. 

In truth, Kakashi is twenty-five and his lover has just crossed the length of their kitchen to throw an arm around his shoulder, breakfast forgotten on the table. Today is one of the few days both him and Naruto have off. Apparently, it is also the day that his childhood friend has decided to come back home. Decided because Kakashi can’t fool himself into believing that someone else managed to drag Obito back, not when him and the rest of the former Team Seven are the only ones who want him back anymore. 

Naruto puts the slip of paper onto the table and Kakashi picks it up and reads it. It says exactly what he expected it to say: the kite is flying home. He even recognizes the neat, careful script as Hinata’s and that’s what finally makes the situation real. 

“He’s coming home,” Kakashi breathes out.

Naruto tightens his hold on Kakashi’s shoulders and then turns his head into the crook of Kakashi’s neck. “He is.”

* * *

Kakashi stares blankly at Rin and Naruto as he waits for Rin to come out and tell him it was all a joke. 

If someone had asked him a year ago if he cared about his genin team, Kakashi would have responded with some offhanded comment that didn’t go one way or another. Genin teams quickly become unnecessary, even if most cling to the bonds that are formed between team members. He just had never considered that the same thing would happen to him. 

Rin starts to fidget, her fingers toying with the edge of her skirt. Her moment of self doubt only lasts for a moment before she takes in a deep breath and pushes her shoulders back again, standing a bit taller. She stares back but her fingers are pressed into her palms, the worry easily mistaken for anger. Kakashi might even fall for the anger if he didn’t know what anger looked like on her. 

“Sensei,” Kakashi deflects, his gaze flickering behind her to where Naruto stands. “I hope you aren’t sending me off to train with Konohamaru-san again.” 

His mouth twists, the expression hidden by his mask, when he hears the derision in his own voice. 

Things like this keep happening. 

Kakashi continually opens his mouth to say something and regardless of how sharp or matter-of-fact he intends the words to be, there is always an edge of mockery to them. He isn’t the only one who has noticed either. Even now, Naruto softens, one of his hands twitching at his side, and Kakashi almost flinches at the sight. 

Naruto nearly grimaces as he steps forward. “Kakashi, we’re not abandoning you.” 

This time, Kakashi does flinch and his foot automatically steps back. 

“What?” Rin breaks her silence as her eyes widen and her thin bottom lip trembles with unspoken hurt. “Of course we’re not going to abandon you, Kakashi-kun! I’ll be training, so I won’t have much time to go out on missions but I’ll still be in the village. You should be going on more difficult missions than what we can do together now, anyways.” 

She’ll carve out time from her busy schedule to make sure Kakashi doesn’t feel lonely is what she really means. Kakashi swallows. His shoulders are tight as he redirects his attention down to the ground and his lips pressed together.

“Kakashi.” Naruto’s tone is soft enough to loosen the knot forming in the center of Kakashi’s chest. “I was actually going to wait until later to tell you this. You know, let Rin have her moment of fame and all that but I know you need to hear this now.”

“What is it?” Kakashi forces out.

“A few weeks ago, I asked baa-chan if I could oversee the rest of your training and this morning, she finally gave me permission.”

The tension between the three of them dissipates at the sight of Naruto’s grin. Kakashi can feel himself relaxing, regardless of how much he attempts to cling to that feeling of betrayal.

“Well.” Naruto’s voice turns sheepish and he reaches up to rub the back of his neck. “Technically, I won’t be training you so much as you’ll be my guard. The Council wants someone keeping an eye on me after those guys snuck into the village, even though I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. This was our, uh, compromise.” 

The knot in his chest finally allows Kakashi to breath as it eases away entirely. “You mean, the Council knows that you’ll throw yourself into a fight at the first sign of danger if someone isn’t babysitting you.” 

“Hey!” 

Rin giggles lightly, hiding her mouth behind her fingertips. “He has a point, Naruto-sensei. You’re one of the most reckless people I know.” 

“I’m one of the strongest jounin in the village, I’m allowed to be reckless!”

* * *

Kakashi sighs at the dark window, the last bit of his energy draining out of him. Every inch of his skin is covered in dirt and grime, and there’s a spot on his calf that radiates a bit too much pain to just be a bruise.

All he wants right now is to shower and then curl up in bed with his boyfriend, even if the last part now seems unlikely. 

He pulls himself back up, his back straightening as he quickly glances up and down the street. It’s currently empty and the shops lining the other side of the street have all been closed for the day, greatly limiting the amount of people who would see him. 

The pain in his leg is simple to ignore as he walks up the side of the building, letting the trees hide him from sight. Breaking into Naruto’s apartment is always the simple part compared to dealing with annoying neighbours. The bedroom window is always cracked open and Kakashi climbs onto the sill, automatically ducking to avoid the senbon needles aimed for his head. They land in the tree behind him just as he steps over all three of the wires pulled tight along the floor. 

Kakashi stops there for a moment because he can’t hear the telltale sound of the explosive seal. A laugh surprises him when he glances over his shoulder to find a note where the seal should have been. Naruto’s messy handwriting is easy to recognize, as is the lecture about putting seals on the window, meaning Naruto must have found it before he left for his mission. 

His uniform is removed piece by piece as he makes his way through the rest of the apartment. His hitai-ate is left on the bedside table, his flak jacket over the back of the desk chair. Kakashi pauses in the kitchen to look through the empty fridge and remove his kunai pouch, absentmindedly grabbing a kunai before leaving it on the counter. Everything else is taken off in the bathroom as he waits for the water to warm and he lets the tension drain from his body once the water pours over his head. 

Everything smells like Naruto here and Kakashi lets that wash over him as well, until the call of sleep becomes too much to ignore. 

A haze settles over him on his way back to Naruto’s bedroom, warm and soothing. It makes it difficult to do anything other than exchange the towel around his hips for the underwear in the bottom drawer of the dresser. Then he falls into the bed, the blanket left kicked off to the side because he’s fast asleep the moment his head hits the pillow. 

Kakashi wakes to find Naruto’s head tucked against his neck and the early sun filtering through the window. It’s nothing short of perfection and he wraps an arm around his waist before falling back asleep.

* * *

Kakashi slams Naruto into the wall and his hands clench in the orange material of Naruto’s shirt. The difference in height between them almost trips him up, not nearly as large as it used to be. Instead, his grip tightens and he scowls. 

“Kakashi-kun,” Naruto starts, panicked, “I can-” 

“You lied to me.” 

The truth rings through the air. Naruto doesn’t attempt to deny it, the rest of his sentence dying between them as he turns his head to the side. It draws Kakashi’s attention back towards the warm corpse on the floor, as if he had been able to forget it in the first place. 

“You told me this was just a precaution, that the Council was just making a fuss over nothing,” he says lowly. 

“They are!” 

“Then why was a missing nin climbing through your bedroom window!” 

Naruto takes advantage of the way Kakashi is shaking to pull him into a crushing hug, one hand cradling the back of his head. It makes Kakashi’s breath falter and his knees grow weak. All he can hear is Naruto’s heartbeat, a steady reminder that Naruto is still alive, that Kakashi hasn’t lost the one person he still has. His grip on Naruto’s shirt loosens after a moment and he gives into the hug, his head dropping to Naruto’s shoulder. 

“I don’t think they have a name,” Naruto softly starts to explain. “They’re not exactly organized either but they’re attempting to use the power of the bijuu somehow.”

“You could have just told me that,” Kakashi says. 

Naruto shakes his head, his hold on Kakashi tightening. “One of their founding members is Uchiha Itachi. He’s Sasuke’s - his older brother was one of my teammates from my genin team. It was after Sasuke died that he killed the Uchiha clan.” 

“Then Obito-” 

“Yeah, Obito’s trying to kill him.”

* * *

“I can’t keep doing this.” 

Kakashi blinks lazily as the details of his bedroom ceiling start to fill in again. “Ah, I don’t think I can either. Not many people have your stamina, sensei.” 

“Stop calling me that.” 

Kakashi frowns as he rolls over onto his side to face Naruto. It leaves him feeling oddly vulnerable without his mask to cover up his expression. Then again, he always feels a bit vulnerable around Naruto, even when Naruto is glowering up at the ceiling instead of paying any attention to him. 

Maybe yesterday’s mission went wrong or something along those line. It isn’t like Naruto to be this distracted. But Kakashi doesn’t have to look far back to remember the way Naruto had grinned at that jounin this afternoon, his hands waving around through a rendition of some story. Kakashi had ended up taking the long route to the Administration office. He forces his face to go blank at the memory and then smiles, the corners of his eyes wrinkling. 

“Does me calling you that excite you, Naruto-sensei?” he asks lightly. 

Naruto groans and finally turns to face him. “Can’t you just be serious for once in your life?” 

“I’m always serious,” Kakashi lies. 

“And I’m the Kazekage.” Naruto tries for a smile but it fades after a moment, his usual levity gone. “But I mean, I can’t do this anymore. I thought I could deal with it but it turns out I was only fooling myself.” 

Kakashi’s smile turns brittle. “I didn’t think there was anything difficult about this.” 

“That’s the problem!” 

His emotions almost consume him before Kakashi swallows them back, staying perfectly still. If he so much as shifts, then this dream will certainly burst. His bed will be entirely devoid of Naruto and when he opens his eyes again, he will be seventeen all over again. That really wasn’t a good time for any of them. 

“I’m sorry but I just can’t. I - I want there to be something difficult about this, you know? Most of my time these days is spent wondering what you’re doing or if I can sneak a couple kisses from you with lunch. This-” Naruto gestures between them, “-was meant to make me forget that I want to have stupid fights over who forgot to buy milk, not make me want it more!” 

“Ah,” Kakashi breathes out, his smile fading. 

“What?” 

Kakashi rolls over and straddles Naruto’s hips. Mismatched eyes, one blue and one black, meet his gaze, just as attention-grabbing as the day they met. Really, he is the luckiest person in the village. Laughter starts to build in his chest but he holds it back in favour of a smirk, a touch too close to a real smile. 

All because Naruto looked over at him with an expression similar to a dejected puppy. The expression that apparently means that Naruto wants more out of this. 

“Kakashi, please say something.” 

Kakashi presses a finger to Naruto’s lips. “You don’t want to interrupt me when I’m trying to think about what to bring to training tomorrow, do you?” 

“I- what?”

“Chocolate or flowers are obvious contenders but I feel like ramen would have a more personal touch. Ah, but ramen is difficult to bring out to the training grounds. What do you think?” 

“You-” Nartuo cuts himself off with an amazed laugh and flips them around, answering not with words but action. They melt into each other as Kakashi wraps his arms around Naruto and pulls him close, feeling far more satisfied than he has in years.

* * *

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with Naruto-sensei lately.” 

Kakashi looks up from the slow curve of his father’s tanto to meet Rin’s contemplative gaze. “Ah, yes, we’re planning on eloping sometime next week. We would invite you to the wedding but then it wouldn’t really be eloping, would it?” 

“Nice try but Naruto-sensei really isn’t the type to elope with someone,” Rin says with a roll of her eyes. 

“Is that an attack against my own character?” 

Rin snatches a book from the side table and tosses it at his head. There isn’t enough force behind it to stop Kakashi from easily plucking it out of the air. 

He hums to himself as he takes a look at it. Rin is all too fond of keeping heavy, hardcover books around her house, usually with long titles that refer to difficult medical techniques or obscure battle tactics. This book is softcover and the cover immediately catches his eyes in its particular artistry. 

“I didn’t know you were interested in these sorts of novels, Rin,” he says lightly. 

“What are you-” Her face flushes, turning her cheeks an interesting shade of red. “Give that back, Kakashi! It has nothing to do with you.”

Kakashi blinks slowly, feigning hurt as he lowers the book to his lap. “You mean, you don’t think about me while you read this? I though we had a bond that went deeper than words. At the very least, I could have been giving you recommendations.” 

“You’re about as hurt now as you were when you shrunk all of Naruto-sensei’s pants,” she snaps, unfolding her legs from beneath her. 

“Well,” he says, pretending to contemplate it, “that was likely driven by a series of small hurts that built up over the years.” 

“You just wanted to see him in tight pants.” 

Kakashi jerks back, his grip on the book loosening. Rin takes advantage of his distraction to lunge from her spot on the loveseat and snatch it back from him. 

She wastes no time in shoving the book underneath the cushions and securing her spot once more. Her eyes narrow as she waits for the inevitable fallout, more comfortable now that her book is safely hidden from sight. 

It doesn’t come. 

Instead, his gaze drops down to his father’s tanto, carefully balanced on his knees. It reflects an image of himself back up at him, his hitai-ate nearly indistinguishable from the silver strands that fall overtop of it. Kakashi tears himself away from the tanto and puts it back into its sheath, shoving both pieces underneath the couch. 

“Did you think I didn’t know?” Rin asks, then her voice turns soft. “You’ve had a crush on Naruto-sensei since we went to Wave, at least.” 

Kakashi frowns underneath his mask. “Are you certain you don’t have me mixed up with someone else?” 

“I am. Nobody likes Naruto-sensei quite as much as you do, Kakashi. You used to spend all of our missions watching him, just in case he turned and smiled at you or something like that. So, yes, you are definitely the type to elope with someone, so long as that someone is Naruto-sensei.”

* * *

“I’ll kill you,” Kakashi breathes out. 

It is as much of a promise as it a proclamation. 

Kakashi’s grip tightens around the broken remnants of his father’s tanto, the air around him sparking with chakra. Chidori can be activated at any moment now. The true question is whether he can land a hit on Obito. There’s no room for error here, not when Naruto can’t back him up, not when things come this far. He shifts back a bit and poses almost directly above Naruto’s unconscious body, eyes trained on his once-teammate. 

If they die here, it will be hours before anyone finds them and then Obito will long gone, even without his sudden ability to teleport. Backup isn’t even a possibilty with how far from the village they are. The only upside to any of this is the swelling in Obito’s cheek where Kakashi managed to land a punch. 

This time he needs to land a punch with the sharp edge of lightning clenched in his hand. Even Obito won’t manage to escape that. 

“You won’t,” Obito counters, spitting out the words. “I’ll never manage to get to him if I don’t kill Uzumaki.”

“You think I care about something like that, Obito-kun?” Kakashi asks, his voice low and dangerous. 

“You should!” Obito stands his ground, his Sharingan spinning through the dark cover of his hair. “Killing him will be a mercy compared to what Itachi will do to him. Itachi will turn him into a puppet by controlling the bijuu inside of him and then send that puppet out to decimate Iwagakure, civilians and all. It would destroy Uzumaki!” 

“No,” he says, because there is nothing else to say.

“What do you mean ‘no’?” 

Kakashi shakes his head, his resolve strengthening. “That won’t become a problem because I will never let Itachi get close enough to Naruto for that to happen. He was the one who taught both of us never to underestimate our own strengths.”

* * *

Rin is right. 

Kakashi endured weeks of teasing and now he won’t even be able to ignore it when they get back to the village. 

He slumps back against the tree trunk with a groan, squeezing his eyes shut. It does nothing to wipe the sight of Naruto sleeping peacefully from his mind. If anything, closing his eyes makes him lose more of his focus. This is supposed to be his watch and it will end badly for both of them if he doesn’t pay closer attention. 

“There something wrong?” Naruto mumbles from a small patch of grass. 

Kakashi’s heart beats against the inside of his ribcage with enough force to tear down a wall. Yes, he thinks to himself because Naruto’s voice is just a bit too low and rough from not speaking to let him approach things rationally. He draws his legs up to his chest. This is almost certainly a problem. 

At least he can’t sense anyone else’s chakra in their immediate vicinity. There is a small village just along the edges of his perception but with a bit of luck, they won’t notice anything out of the ordinary. 

When Kakashi opens his eyes again, Naruto is watching him, the blue and black of his eyes barely visible through the dark. The words have died somewhere in his throat, even though he knows he needs to say something. Instead, his legs itch with the need to run and this timing isn’t just bad, it’s horrible. Kakashi will certainly be cursing himself for this until the day he dies. 

Naruto frowns, oblivious to his inner turmoil. “Kakashi?” 

“The only thing wrong here is your snoring, sensei,” he says, the line falling flat. 

Naruto is usually the sort of person who will just roll back over and ignore any comments made in his general vicinity until morning. Kakashi has made use of this more times than he can count over the years, just to mess with him. 

Instead, Naruto huffs. “Naruto.” 

“Yes, I believe that’s your name, Naruto-sensei.” 

“No, I meant that I’m not your sensei anymore.” Naruto waves a tired hand towards Kakashi as he closes his eyes again. “Plus, you look like that now, all grown up and stuff. It only makes sense that you get to call me Naruto.” 

“Ah.” 

Naruto takes that as his consent and rolls back over, his breath evening out within moments. It leaves Kakashi to stare, captivated by the gentle rise and fall of Naruto’s chest. There is something rhythmic to it, something that manages to calm the growing panic inside of him. 

His head tips back to stare up at the stars. All he really wants to do is cross the distance between them and curl up against the broad expanse of Naruto’s shoulders. Kakashi stays right where he is, his hands instead curled around his knees. He isn’t even in his twenties yet, has a bad tendency to push away the people he cares about, and spends most of his free time training. It would be all of his time if it weren’t for Rin and Naruto. 

“Naruto,” Kakashi tries. 

The name rolls perfectly off of his tongue. 

As soon as this mission is over, he’s going to resign as Naruto’s guard.

* * *

Kakashi closes his front door behind him the moment he catches sight of Naruto, unharmed and standing in his kitchen. His finger hooks into the cloth of his mask before he crosses the distance, tugging it down. There isn’t the chance for Naruto to see anything as Kakashi pins him against the counter and seals their lips together. 

His hands press into the cold counter to keep himself from cupping the back of Naruto’s head. Kakashi pours everything he has into this one kiss, desperately attempting to get Naruto to respond. This can’t be one-sided, regardless of how still Naruto is beneath him. One mission apart and Naruto is waiting for him in his kitchen, two bowls of warm food waiting on the counter. 

Naruto pushes him back. “What are you doing?” 

“I need-” 

The truth falls away when Kakashi sees what Naruto looks like. His gaze is immediately glued to his red, swollen lips, to the flush in Naruto’s cheeks. Naruto spends only a brief moment looking at the rest of Kakashi’s face before focusing on the space between Kakashi’s eyes, the redness in his cheeks growing. 

“I just needed to make sure you were alright,” Kakashi says, his voice rough. 

Naruto swallows, looking like he can feel each and every one of the seven days he was gone for. It shouldn’t make Kakashi readjust his focus on the line of Naruto’s throat but it does. “You were the one who wanted to take off on his own, stupid.” 

For a brief moment, Kakashi is certain that he screwed everything up. All it would take is another push to get him to step out of Naruto’s space entirely, to make him ignore this for the rest of his life. 

Then Naruto kisses him, slower than the kiss Kakashi had initiated. It makes Kakashi feel like he’s drowning except he can’t even begin to articulate that because every word has left his brain entirely. The only thing he can do is push back, even as he lets Naruto set the pace between them and presses their bodies closer together.


End file.
